


Attachments Made Out of Light

by calculatingMinutiae



Series: The Ghost of Glimwood Tangle [3]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: 2sp00kyAU, Anxiety Disorder, Fae Opal, First Meetings, Fun with Ghost Logic, Gen, Ghost!Allister, Male-Female Friendship, Social Anxiety, Young!Opal, no betas we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:53:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21879922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calculatingMinutiae/pseuds/calculatingMinutiae
Summary: The year is 1941.Opal has just turned ten years old, old enough to officially become a Pokemon Trainer, and yet her mother tells her not to venture too far into the Glimwood Tangle. There's no telling what she might find there.Opal takes this as a challenge.
Relationships: Onion | Allister & Poplar | Opal
Series: The Ghost of Glimwood Tangle [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1576204
Comments: 9
Kudos: 127





	Attachments Made Out of Light

There are some things in this world that are not meant to be known.

At least, that's what her mother told her, a characteristic sparkle to pale blue, unearthly bright eyes. Opal doesn't buy into it. Not even for a moment, nodding, and agreeing.

"Okay, mum. Can I go play with Impidimp now? We're going to need to train pretty hard if we want to be as strong as you are, some day." Opal lets her eyelashes flutter, just a bit, hands neatly folded in front of her, swaying a little. The epitome of youthful impatience.

Her mother simply ruffles her hair, and hands over the ultra ball.

Today is the day that Opal, heiress to the Ballonlea gym, can legally call herself a fully-fledged Pokémon trainer. A mere step out from her front door, she calls out her dearest friend in the world, who has decided to wear a purple bowtie for the occasion. At least, it's partially tied, anyway, and really ribbon isn't exactly that easy to work with without any defined thumbs--

Opal unties the ribbon, and fixes it just a touch.

"There. Like a proper gentleman, we're grown up now, you know." She stands up a little straighter, miming the capital-P Prim and Proper behavior a young woman such as herself is meant to embody, now that she is not a "little kid" anymore. She very quickly lets the facade collapse, the breath she'd been holding clumsily released with it. She's already a true thespian, throwing herself wholeheartedly into her roles. For better _and_ for worse.

Impidimp laughs, and it's practically infectious.

"C'mon now, Dimple, it doesn't matter _what_ mum says. We already live in the Tangle every day, and there's got to be a hundred of your brothers out there! Maybe more. It'll be great!" Opal hops from foot to foot, bursting at the seams with energy that Dimple can only barely match.

The pair run off together, racing one another to the mouth of the woods.

*

It's been not five minutes in the Tangle proper when Opal has made up her mind.

"Right. We are never! Going! BACK! Look at this, Dimple, it's a red one!" She giggles, a mischievous pointer finger suspended in the air.

Dimple looks over to her, a horrible enabler.

" _Boink._ " She chirps, jumping back and watching the bioluminescence light the slowly falling spores of the mushroom. She and Dimple cackle to themselves, but are met with more than just an echo.

A wild Impidimp jumps out from beneath the mushroom, sending Opal rolling back in the grass to try and avoid it's grip. "Aa-AH! Dimple, Fake Out!"

Her little Impidimp claps its hands around its "brother's" face, met only with a dazed expression and an attempt to bite back.

"Draining Kiss!"

The move is super effective, sending their assailant running back into the shadows.

Opal stands up, brushing off her skirt, and patting Dimple's head. She mutters under her breath, " _Thanks, mum…._ "

Right. Reset.

She takes a deep breath in, and bolts toward another mushroom. Dimple is more than happy to chase after her.

The two's shenanigans have not gone unnoticed. Aside from scaring the local hatenna into hiding with all the noise, the odd Galarian ponyta gazing upon someone so pure of heart and yet rife with what the more traditional would consider "unbecoming" _spunk_ , there is another being in the forest following their footsteps. Hiding in the trees, staying cloaked in shadow, it lurks, dragging itself step by step through the underbrush. It shrinks away at the sight of another mushroom's light.

"Dimple! Draining Kiss!" Opal points to another wild impidimp with a confidence beyond her ten years of life. The bright blue eyes she's inherited gleam in the low forest's light, a zest for adventure that refuses to be extinguished by something as simple as "defeat" from "battling far too many times in a row, and failing to understand that slowly chipping away at health means that eventually you'll have to rest."

She sets up a little play-tent, opens up her bag of berries.

*

No. _No_ , he tells himself, he can't do this.

He can't talk to her. 

She's just so. Composed? Self-assured? So _bold_ , and he isn't. Even though he can talk to all of the certified-spookiest Pokémon around here, he's still certain just walking in for the first time would give him the creeps. If she were truly lost, or truly sad, wouldn't she have called for help by now? She is fine, everything is fine, you worry for nothing and without that pinch of altruism, you can't actually justify _bothering_ her. Don't be burdensome. She's probably too old to put up with a little kid like you, anyway.

She and her impidimp have set up camp, and should not be disturbed. He can't imagine he'd like it too much if someone were to come around while he were camping with a Pokémon, like a real bona fide trainer does.

Then again.

Then again, how often does the chance come around? People don't exactly stop by the Glimwood Tangle recreationally, mostly just passing through as a part of the gym challenge. Too busy to stop, too busy to talk, too busy to acknowledge him at all, and he can never figure out where they're _coming from_ , either; this girl is stopping. This girl is taking her time. She must know the way back to town, and might just tell him, if he could only find the audacity to _ask_.

Allister braces himself, shaking at the shoulders, then opening glowing purple eyes with a set look of determination.

He is met with tiny black pupils in the very near proximity of his face.

"GAH!" he stumbles back, tripping only over his own feet as he narrowly dodges Dimple's recently-practiced Fake Out. The way its singular nostril is a deep blood-red makes his hair stand on end, frozen in place, covering his face with his bangs and the overdrawn sleeves of his jacket as though it will protect him from an incoming Faint Attack.

"Have at thee, foul spectre!" Opal yells from not far away, keeping her head held high even as she's drawn to doubt. Why would a fearsome ghost feel the need to duck for cover? Is she truly _that_ frightening already?

"F-foul?" Allister peeks out from his little self-made barrier, eye open just a crack. He takes a moment, only to ask with some remaining hesitation: "… spe-ctre?"

Opal lets down her stance, one hand gently prodding her temple. "You. _Are_ the Ghost of Glimwood Tangle, aren't you?" She looks almost exasperated, pacing a bit as she speaks. "You know. Figure of legend, come to devour the souls of the children that come into the forest, an' that?"

"... Am I the _wot_ ,"

"You're not very good at it." Opal has perched herself on a small dirt ledge, supporting her head and smashing her cheek with one hand. "The haunting business, I mean. If you're going to fight me for my soul and such you should at _least_ have the decency to play the part."

" … I'm. Sorry?" Allister, sufficiently far from a Dimple just barely held back from violence as though on a leash by Opal's mere expression, is thoroughly terrified _and_ confused.

"As you should," Opal breathes half-heartedly, drawing in the dirt with the tip of her shoe.

" … 'm. I'm not after souls… 'm just lost, I think."

"Lost?" Opal parrots, recalling Dimple back into its pokeball before it gives itself a coronary. Always protecting its princess, that imp. Loyal to a fault to the right person. "How lost, exactly? You look like you haven't slept in fifty years."

"Very, …" says Allister, stepping into the soft green glow of the nearby mushrooms. The distant buzz of nincada clicking and chirping to one another underscores his silence. " 'm from Stow-on-side. … Are, you?"

"No no, I'm from Ballonlea." _And proud of it,_ her tone says for her.

"Oh," sighs Allister, with nary a clue where that is. Messy raven hair obscures most of his face, enough so that he puts his hands in his pockets. He fidgets a little with his sleeves, almost certainly avoiding looking at her.

"… Did you. Want to sit down with me?" Opal says, already scooting over before Allister has a chance to answer.

"O. Okay."  
  
"Why didn't you send out a Pokémon? Dimple and I might be starting out, but you still could have gotten hurt."

Allister mumbles something under his breath.

"Come again?"

" 'm not old enough for a Pokémon," he says a little louder than he meant to, flinching, shrugging his shoulders to protect the side of his face.

Opal's hand extends, for just a moment, before thinking better of it. " Hey, 's alright. Not going to hurt you, see?"

Allister is still just as nervous, just as cloistered in the collar of his borrowed jacket.

"… Well. You're only too young for a Pokémon to the adults, and. I certainly don't see any around. It's just you and me, and if you're going to be out here you shouldn't have to do it alone, yeah?"

Allister lets his shoulders relax, little by little, actually looking her over, now. The way her dark hair reflects the shimmer of the mushroom spores, the way her eyes seem almost ethereal but no less kind, the way she's smiling at him and it doesn't feel even a bit condescending. He. Nods, lightly. "If that's okay."

"'Course it's okay. I wouldn't say anythin' if it wasn't okay!" She giggles, back to her boisterous self, barely containing a voice too big for her. "Come, now, why don't you sit around the fire with me? I think we ought to get introduced proper."

Allister nods, obedient, or at least not terribly resistant to suggestion. " 's cold."

"Is it?"

"… Yeah."

"Hmm. Not for long, it won't be."

*

Opal seats herself back down at the head of the fire, roasting berries on a stick in such a manner that narrowly avoids setting them on fire completely. Allister makes a face, a little nervous, but keeps his head down. Right. Be polite, even when you're correct.

"So," Opal starts, pausing less to give Allister a word in edgewise and more to muse to herself, "Stow-on-side, huh? Bit out of the way there, isn't it?"

"... It's nice." Allister shrugs, eyeing a rawst berry that has, ironically, started to char.

Opal remains completely oblivious. "You're really new to this whole 'friend' thing, aren't you? It's okay if you are. I can teach you!" 

" F-riend, thing?"

"Right! Where we talk to each other, and run around and play games and somewhere down the line things get a lot more _fun_ ,"

" ... I-I know some fun things. Not much point in, in, b-but the phantump like to--"

"The _phantump?_ Aren't they supposed to be spirits, or something?"

" Yeah, and they're really quite nice--"

"Just how long have you been out here, anyway?"

Allister has to think, for a moment, running the smooth coat fabric between his fingers.

" A bit," he surmises. "Few hours, maybe."

Opal is in a bit of shock. "Woah, how'd your parents let you stay so long? Mum didn't even want me out of the Ballonlea area, says it's 'rife with trouble', and all, but she never says why. I know those ghost stories are all a load of poppycock to scare kids into staying close to home, but where's the fun in that, yeah?"

Allister shrugs. "Ghost stories? .... Like, that ghost of Glimwood Tangle, right?"

"Oh yeah, that one's worst of them all," Opal rolls her eyes, taking her berries out from overtop the flame yet finding herself with a small torch. "'s a bit of a legend, around here, but not a terribly old one. They say that some poor kid got lured into the Tangle and got taken by the Fae," she shrugs, nonchalant, blowing out the candle wick of a stick in her hand.

"That sounds more rude than scary..."

"Oh no, the Fae have no use for human children, 'cept maybe hunting them for sport. Heard that a Grimmsnarl turned the kid's bones into--"

" _Okay._ " Allister puts his hands up in front of his face as though that will stop the thought in its tracks.

"What? It's just story. Besides, most of the Pokémon here are more scared of you than you of them." Opal looks a little incredulous, silently trying to roast a new set of berries and hope that Allister hasn't noticed it taking so long.

He has. "What about the ghost, then?"

"What about the ghost?"

"Why would, would they hurt anybody?"

"I dunno. They just do ghost things, for ghost reasons."

"And nobody has ever _asked?_ " Allister says without stuttering, violet eyes catching the light enough to glow through the dark.

Opal looks down at her crossed legs, shaken. The boy is so quiet, and yet she feels like she's been scolded. Is this how it feels to argue with a friend? So really, truly wretched?

"... Ghosts don't have to be mean. But people like to make them that way, comin' into and taking their homes and callin' them weird an' creepy an' everything. Like that makes them less than. But it doesn't."

"...."

" 'm sorry."

"No, I am too." Opal nods, though she's not entirely sure why.

"... I can talk to them. The ghosts, I mean. Since I was four."

Opal looks up at him, the complete sincerity in his voice, and even if it is not wise she doesn't think twice about believing him. "Ghost Pokémon? Or. People-ghosts?"

"Haven't met any people-ghosts, yet, but the Pokémon are lovely when you get to know them."

Opal leans in, a bit, curiosity spiking. "Oh! What about phantump, didn't they used to be people? Yamask, too..."

"Well. _Yeah,_ but they don't really remember being human. Don't like to think about it too hard, either. It'd hurt to, I think, so I'm not about to pry."

"But if you're a ghost, you can't get hurt by _anything_!" Opal gawks, suddenly starstruck. Oh, how wonderful, to be a ghost! So strong, so invulnerable. A ghost would hardly be bothered by something as mundane as "not having friends her age", so she thinks.

"Other ghosts," Allister deadpans.

"Oh yeah...."

"And the dark. Ghosts are terribly frightened by the dark."

"Oh? Why's that?"

"Mostly the dark that's in other people. Mortal things don't really hurt them anymore, but being cruel always hurts, I think."

"... Hmm. Well, they won't have to be afraid here! There's plenty of fairies around, and mum says that fairies are at their strongest against evil and chaos!"

"Your mum says lots of things, doesn't she?" Allister hides a slight upturn of his cheek with one hand.

"Of course she does! She's the _gym leader_! She has to know _all_ about the type matchups, and fairies strengths and weaknesses." She sits up a little straighter, with Prim and Proper enunciation.

" 'n so do you, then?"

"Naturally, If I'm gonna follow her someday. Absolutely Opalescent, glittering gem 'tween the Aspen trees," a starry-eyed speech slides into a more humble a grin, sliding the berries off of the stick she's nearly burnt beyond edibility again. She offers one to Allister.

" 'm not hungry."

"Nonsense! You're out in the woods and you're going to tell me a boy shyer than a skwovet taught himself to forage?"

"... I'unn get hungry."

Opal looks him over, just a little disconcerted. "... Hey, are you. Are you sure you're okay? Maybe we should go to the Pokémon center, Miss Joyce isn't a human medic but she could probably help," She reaches for his shoulder, to reassure him.

Her hand goes right through.

Allister looks down to her hand, currently halfway through his shoulder, then back up to meet her shocked expression. He is not scared, nor frightened, or even, at this point, truly surprised. He is merely... disappointed. His eyes tear up involuntarily. He sighs, emotions dulled at the ends, a sword burnished and de-burred until it's hardly more than a blunt pole.

"… Nobody's coming, are they?"

Opal, in her way, does not hesitate to tell the truth. She gently shakes her head, no.

"... Figures," Allister keeps his head down, letting himself creep closer to despair.

"W-well, hey!" Opal jolts up, clapping her hands together. "You're still here, aren't you? Shouldn't let a little setback put you down," she nods, hauling herself up and letting her skirt whirl around her in the slight resulting breeze. "Mum says there are sinistea in the Tangle, they're ghosts! Maybe you can ask for some of their tea, might make it a little less cold."

"You really think so?" Allister tilts his head, ever present neutral expression returning to him. Somehow, this is an improvement.

"Of course! Want to come look with me?" Opal offers, racing off not a moment later.

Allister doesn't hesitate to follow, now, intrigued by her enthusiasm and without much to lose. He glides over the grass with some ease, once he lets himself.

*

The pair search the Tangle inside-out for even a single sinistea. They encounter plenty of hattrem, the little psychics sensing and admonishing the near-tangible anxiety radiating from Allister, an indeed kind enough to assist in the search, and even a fluffy ponyta. When a morgrem jumps out of the tall grass, however, Allister shudders.

Opal doesn't think before she throws herself and Dimple in front of him. He's already taken off to hide deeper in the woods by the time she turns to face him. 

_You can't just abandon a friend!_ his psyche argues, the edges that make up his hands softening with dismay. He finds himself, literally, coming undone.

_I wouldn't be any use to her. Now I'm not in the way._ You also got her into this mess, look at her, she's alone! Don't you wish you hadn't been alone when you _She's not going to. I'd know, wouldn't I?_ She could! _But what do I DO?_ Stop being so scared! _I'M TRYING!_ If she wasn't scared of meeting an actual, human ghost, you can handle a morgrem. _BUT HOW DO I HELP?_

He eyes a rock, reaching for it to quickly cause a diversion launching it through the makeshift battlefield. 

His hand phases through it.

No, no, _no, NO!_

He keeps his head down, listening as Opal calls out move after move behind him. Of course he doesn't have any of the _useful_ ghost abilities. Instead, he's perpetually downtrodden, a coward, always looking behind him and down at his feet, and

At his feet, he finds, he is not alone.

_Teaaaa...._

A tiny teacup smiles up at him, beckoning to be picked up. Against the good sense experience has drilled into him not two moments before, he reaches for sinistea.

Sinistea reaches back, shaking his hand with one it's made itself.

Allister nods, picking up the little Pokémon by the teacup proper, never losing contact with the phantasmal being, and chucks the rock just past Morgrem.

Opal is just as surprised to see Allister emerge from the forest again, this time with help. Between the two of them, Sinistea and Allister have managed to round up a small clump of phantump in a matter of minutes, each eager to give the Morgrem that's been picking on beings smaller than it a piece of their mind. With a well-placed Will-O-Wisp directed at the distracted beast and the direction of piercing purple eyes, the magnitude of the remaining Hexes is more than enough to drive Morgrem away from Opal and Dimple.

Not a moment afterward, he's cheerfully thanking their allies as they disband. "Nah, I don't think he'll be givin' you problems for a long time. Oughtta learn a lesson there." Allister laughs, Phantump floating around his head, openly smiling.

It's Opal's turn to be in awe.

Dimple stays by her side, more than slightly worn out from fighting a Pokémon twice its size, but still protective. Still wary, though… maybe this ghost kid isn't half bad after all.

Once the phantump horde have retreated to their hallow, Allister and Sinistea come to offer Opal a hand getting up. She looks him up and down, smiling in half-disbelief. "So, when were you gonna tell me you could do that?"

"I can't. Just got some good friends." He shrugs, not bothering to cover his eyes back up now that it's all over. "And I think I'm lucky I made another today."

Opal shrugs, mostly hauling herself up as Allister seems to forget how gravity works. They walk back to Opal's camp together. "You still haven't told me your name, you know."

"Neither have you…"

"Hmph! Well, only one way to fix that, yeah? My name is Opal!"

" … 'm Allister," He half-mumbles, looking more at Sinistea, who has decided to tag along. All of a sudden, he's inclined to keep his head down, that confidence slowly ebbing away as Allister realizes that, one, he's rubbish at talking to girls, and two, he is rubbish at talking to _people at all_ , and Opal is a person.

Opal hums a bit, packing up her less than successful camping excursion. Better luck next time. "Allister. Never heard that one before, ought to remember it."

"… ," Allister tilts his head a bit, sprawling neutrality dulling the temptation to ask, _"hey, why don't we do this again sometime? Maybe with fewer overpowered Morgrem around."_

"… Do you want to get some hot chocolate at the Pokémon Center?" Opal asks, admitting to herself that the process of actually _socializing_ is nerve-wracking. Luckily for her, her first human friend her age knows the feeling well.

" … Yeah. Think that'd be nice."

"Race you there!"

"W- O-Opal, wait!"

There are things in this world not meant to be known, like why wickedness exists or what comes after the end, but knowing is not always necessary. Sometimes, it's enough to just scrape by when you do it alongside a friend.


End file.
